Spicer first tried ignoring the woman.
The White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had a really bad outing on Saturday, when he was approached by an Indian American woman in an Apple Store. Shree Chauhan, a 33-year-old Indian American called President Trump a “fascist” and accused Spicer of racism.
Chauhan, an employee of a non-profit and a resident of Washington, DC, spotted Spicer and took a video of him being confronted with loaded questions.
In the video posted on the Facebook by Chauhan, she can be seen confronting Spicer. She began by asking: “How does it feel to work for a fascist?”
Spicer can be seen trying to ignore the woman responds saying, “We have a great country.”
In response, Chauhan asks, “We have a great country? Have you helped with the Russia stuff? Are you a criminal as well?”
“Have you committed treason too? Just like the president. Have you committed treason too? What can you tell me about Russia?”
To this, the press secretary politely smiled and told Chauhan, “It’s such a great country that allows you to be here.” Spicer then is seen walking away.
Now, the last reply of Spicer didn’t go well with Chauhan, who has accused him of racially profiling her by saying that she had no rights to be in the US.
In an interview with Daily Mail, Chauhan said, “He’s the press secretary for the president of the United States. Don’t tell me what he probably meant because he also works for this administration that has done all of these things.”
She was answering to the question whether Spicer was referring to the fact that all Americans despite their origin can exercise their right to free speech and the same can be exercised even when meeting powerful people.
Chauhan was quoted by Daily Mail saying, “He could’ve said, “Such a great country that allows dissent,” she said. “There’s a lot of ways that could’ve been said.”
“To have someone who speaks for the president of the United States tell me to my face that I shouldn’t be here and I was born here – that is a real thing,” she added.
She also added that Trump’s election as the US President has instilled in her great fear for the future of the county. Chauhan works for Parents in Partnership, an NGO that encourages parents to take a greater role in their children’s education.
“I woke up the day after the election in fear of what would happen to someone like me. And we’ve seen what happened,” she said. “We’ve seen what happened to Indians.”
Chauhan also said that she has no regret about the question she raised to the press secretary and said that she was trying to get answers for the American people.
The Indian American community has been in a state of shock after engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was shot dead in Olathe, Kansas, by a US Navy veteran in what was described as a hate crime. Kuchibhotla’s colleague Alok Madasani, 32, was also shot at, but he escaped with minor injuries.
In a separate incident, business owner Harnish Jayantilal Patel, 43, was gunned down outside his home in Lancaster, South Carolina.
In a letter posted on Medium.com, Chauhan explained, “I realized what an enormous opportunity it was to get answers without the protections normally given to Mr. Spicer. I was honestly quite nervous and wanted to come up with more cogent questions but did not have time to do so.”
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